Rider has success at mounted games

A Cambridge equestrian rode to victory in the mounted games at Horse of the Year 2017 in Hawke’s Bay.

Kimmy Earnshaw, with her riding pair Allysha Adams from Waikato North, won the over 17s class.

Earnshaw had been riding for 20 years and started mounted games four years ago.

‘‘I got asked to ride in a Cambridge Pony Club team despite my pony having no games training, but we picked it up fast,’’ she said.

‘‘Once I got the taste for it I had the games bug.’’

She used to compete mainly in eventing and show jumping with other disciplines. But now she competes in games most weekends, favouring it over jumping.

‘‘So for me games is at the top with dressage at the bottom of my list, however I enjoy schooling flat work,’’ she said.

Earnshaw was riding and competing with an ankle injury for the past 19 months, but now that Horse of the Year was behind her, surgery was scheduled to fix it. She injured it by slipping as she unclipped a dog kennel.

‘‘I’m going in for a full ankle ligament reconstruc- tion with a recovery time of eight months,’’ she said.

‘‘The longest I’ve ever had off riding was 28 days, in 10 days I was back competing for a national title,’’ she said.

The rain during the week forced organisers to move the games to the Hawke’s Bay Equestrian Park.